As the electronics and IT industry, including smartphones, home appliances and TVs, grapples with a memory chip shortage, the hardest hit sector is gaming. The launch timing of PlayStation 6 (PS6), the core of Sony's gaming business, is reportedly likely to be pushed back to 2028 or 2029, and Valve, which runs Steam, the world's largest gaming platform, has also sounded the alarm on releasing various gaming devices, including the "Steam Machine," due to a surge in memory prices.
The damage has begun to extend beyond gaming hardware to the industry itself. Analysts say rising memory and storage prices are slowing the sector's growth by lifting costs not only for hardware but also for software, subscription services, peripherals and development. The explanation is that the memory shortage is no longer just a device problem but a variable shaking the entire platform's pricing structure.
According to the industry on the 16th, major overseas game device manufacturers are minimizing the hit by readjusting game prices, subscription fees and peripheral prices instead of swallowing higher hardware costs caused by memory price hikes. The resulting knock-on effects are even undermining growth engines in software, such as new game development and service expansion.
First, supply is slowing for high-demand product lines such as PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and Steam Machine. Nvidia earlier predicted that the semiconductor shortage affecting game devices could persist through the end of this year, and said the fallout burdens not only its own gaming business but the global console market as a whole. Market research firm TrendForce also forecast the console market could shrink 4.4% in 2026.
Game title sales are also feeling the impact. According to Bloomberg and other foreign media, storage capacity issues on Nintendo Switch 2 are dampening demand for game software. In particular, the sharp rise in NAND flash prices has driven up the expense of external storage devices, making users with limited internal storage more cautious about buying games, which in turn is curbing consumption.
The expense structure of major game developers at home and abroad is also worsening. Market research firm Omdia noted that as artificial intelligence (AI) and games compete for data center resources, server and cloud infrastructure expense will become a key burden for game studios in 2026. That means companies with a high share of live-service games, multiplayer servers and large-scale backend operations could take a bigger indirect hit from the memory shortage.
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, contract prices for memory chips in the first quarter this year have surged at an unprecedented pace, rising 130% to 180% from the previous quarter after Lunar New Year. Of this, server DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) account for 60% of total sales. In other words, high-priced server memory and AI memory within the memory chip segment are driving the steep price gains.
An official at a major Korean game company said, "The memory chip shortage is proving to be a cost shock across the gaming market that could extend beyond supply disruptions for game devices to price hikes for consoles and PCs, a shrinkage of entry-level devices, readjustments to game, subscription and peripheral prices, a slowdown in software sales due to storage burdens, and even rising server expense."